The public square, even under autocracies, is a volatile place exposed constantly to the vicissitudes of taste, political will, and history's ever-evolving measure. Whether referring to artist, subject, or patron, change can come quick and judgment harsh: it's the price paid for all those asserting significance in their lifetimes or imposing engagement wanted or not. In each case there seems to be a built-in tipping point that, once reached, spells demise.
Worse still is the presumptuous imposition in assigning historic significance before the test of time intervenes; that can lead to a benign neglect as pernicious as any photogenic toppling. A new AIDS Memorial is planned for New York even as San Francisco's 20-year old National AIDS Memorial Grove stands largely unvisited except as an occasional ceremonial backdrop or particularly intrepid tourist destination. Were there a memorial to typhoid would anyone care? They should, but can a public memorial best manage the assignment over the long run when those personally engaged are no longer on hand to tend it?
The great American master Frederick MacMonnies's Garden of Eden parable Civic Virtue went up in front of New York's City Hall in 1922 with great fanfare but has been kicking around pretty much ever since as creative impulse led almost immediately to mocking derision ("Good" man tramples "Evil" woman --turns out political incorrectness is nothing new). LaGuardia removed it and today it still crumbles outside the Borough Hall of Queens destined, apparently, at long fitting last for Brooklyn's historic Green-wood Cemetery, where it can stand rightly as a curious expression of American sculptural art rather than any sort of symbol of a binding social contract.
Three generations later, an angry public forced removal in lower Manhattan of Richard Serra's Tilted Arc not for its abstract subject matter per se but for its overwhelming form. Defaced by graffiti, Arc sacrificed diverse concurrent public enjoyment of a public square to the subjective tableau of one man -- however limitless his genius may be. This was the aesthetic face of political shift and concomitant rejection of imposed priority.
But it is politics that hold a special place in the history of ill-conceived and ill-fated monuments. The successive pharaohs of Egypt set a standard wherever the filter of historic democratic consensus is circumvented and premature idolatry guarantees ultimate collapse.
The one exception is when the public symbol of oppression paradoxically becomes a warning portent of the evils of its original commission; Iraq's shift from destruction to restoration of Saddam's grotesque street-spanning, sword-brandishing Hands of Victory is a fine case in point.
Castro can likely anticipate a posthumous removal of the two- and three-dimensional manifestations of his murderous cult of personality along with Assad -- pere et fils -- as oppression yields to honest collective appraisal unleashed by rage.
Surely since the beginning of recorded history it is this impulse, whether imposed by succeeding regimes or more commonly in the modern era as willed by the broader citizenry, that finally prevails.
With sports and entertainment rising so meteorically in cultural currency over the last century, the demolition of Joe Paterno's premature bronze tableau sadly exemplifies the peril of such hubris in a relatively new thematic arena. Its immediate removal need not have meant permanent exile but those in favor held out too long and opened a valve of outrage that has likely subverted reconsideration for the near future. And bear in mind: thirty years ago, nearby Philadelphia rejected Sylvester Stallone's "generous" offer of a fist-pumping, victorious, life-size, bronze Rocky atop the grand stairs of its world-class fine arts museum. Let's hope they would still dare to do so today when so many might find it a fine civic amenity.
In the best of circumstances, Paterno didn't belong there yet in the first place. The same goes for Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt outside of Phillies Stadium; it's fine for now but his life must not deviate from the standard set in stone and only an unknown future can deem its permanent value for fixed devotion. Babe Ruth's posthumous placement along the Yankees Wall of Heroes seems just about perfect in timing and enduring merit. So does the Arthur Ashe statue at the National Tennis Center even if inexplicably nude.
Name-naming in America is a different story as it is generally tied to donation or subsidy, signifying a contracted period of gratitude (or marketing) rather than contemplative worship. And, besides, it can be discarded instantly: read Enron, Qualcomm, and Shea (who was he?) stadiums.
What matters instead, going forward (at this fractious multicultural time of declining resources), is the issue of erecting specific memorial artworks or dedicated places. If not done right following a respectful interlude of broad un-imposed consensus, then the act itself is counter-productively imperiled when not damned outright.
Overlooked: The clowns who created the Joe Paterno statue and who named a university building for Paterno forget the cardinal rule that IS carved in stone: NEVER erect permanent memorials and honors to those who are still alive, and who we all may yet discover were actually vile individuals, more worthy of scorn and abuse than honors. The bizarre collective *adoration* of "JoPa" by many at PSU was shameful and probably pathological, and while some at PSU are incredibly slow to learn, everyone else should heed the lesson.
Wong notion: The idea that Philadelphians or the Art Museum would now welcome the Rocky Statue. That may be your own personal notion but it's not shared by Philadelphians, and you mustn't pretend that it is. It's still just a silly prop from a movie, and still has no place at the top of the Art Museum steps. People are even LESS willing to consider that today than they were years ago.
Together, all of that might help the Utterly Clueless of Happy Valley to see the light.
But there will always be some PSU extremists who regard any "attack" on JoPa as an attack on the flag, on the Blessed Mother, on God Himself.
Americans will not stop honoring individuals who have achieved something great just because they might not be perfect, otherwise there would be no sculptures honoring anyone of significance in our country, like Thomas Jefferson or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. No one is perfect; everyone has flaws, even men and women of great accomplishment.
Mr. Gunther suggests a waiting period just in case we discover that the person honored in bronze turns out, at a future time, to be a monster, or someone who in any sense abetted a heinous crime. That occasion is such a rare one. Besides, I think there is nothing wrong with deciding that a sculpture needs to be removed and removing it. With regard to his downfall in the public domain, removing the Paterno sculpture can serve as a metaphor and catharsis and is positive in itself.
any active musician/group that gets elected to the "rock and roll hall of fame."
any "greatest ever" list.
it's all about the marketing of perceived success, and americans sit on the couch and eat it up.
marketing. start seeing it for what it is, america.
It certainly beats the traditional 1000lb bomb that would kill the whole village.
1. Pete Rose Way in Cincinnati.
2. In the mid-1980's, the Indiana Legislature actually decided to put "The Michael Jackson State" on ALL auto license plates. The plan was never implemented.
Next you'll be saying it's tacky to put "TRUMP" on the side of one's casino in 30-foot high lighted letters. I mean, they're only 10 yards tall.
I think you might be a candidate for remedial aesthetic training.
He didn't deserve one but all VPs have a bust. It's a rule or a commandment or something.
Like free, competent health care for congress.